This story will self destruct in T-Minus
by PDavis32
Summary: This story will be lighthearted, considering the issue it takes on in the author's note. Please read to the ending note, this is super important. I will most likely be deleting this in like a week or so, so unless you really like this super short story, then don't get too disappointed when it goes poof. UPDATE: The second part to this is up, and I'm scared, hopefully at a fault.
1. What's bothering you, Star?

**A/N: I am writing this to have a bit of fun with a serious situation that I will explain once the actual story part of this post is done. Also, this is my first attempt at 3rd Person POV, so let me know how I did, despite how much of a joke this is. Figured this was the safest way to experiment. Cheers.**

Marco was walking back into his house after a long day at the dojo. He was super proud of how he had been able to handle Jeremy as of late. _'I guess all of the monster fighting has been paying off,'_ he thought to himself. As he walked through the front door, he noticed that Star was laying down on the couch, just staring up at the ceiling.

He said, "Hey Star, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing," she replied.

"Don't lie to me, Star. I know when you're upset. And I can't make you feel better if you don't tell me what's going on." Marco really wanted to know what was going on, because despite what she might think, he really did care for her, maybe in a way that was more than just friendship.

Star sighed. "It's a really big and complex issue that has really been bugging me as of late."

"Well, can you tell me what it is?"

"It's about how creative people can be silenced."

Marco was taken a bit by surprise. "Why is this a big deal to you? You don't just start thinking about this randomly."

"I don't know. It's just that it's a problem that seems to be all too common these days. Perfectly good people who just want to be creative having their intellectual property stolen, it's just not right, and it's certainly not legal." Marco was a bit surprised that she knew what intellectual property even meant, but he brushed that aside.

"But Star, there has to have been something to have made you sad about this in the first place, right?" Marco was now mad at whatever had made her upset, and he was going to find out what.

"I don't really know, it's probably a culmination of a lot of things, really." Again, Marco didn't know who was teaching her these bigger words, not that he was complaining. Maybe he was rubbing off on her. "What with all the free-booting on Facebook and YouTube, seeing it happen to one of the little guys just makes me so sad."

"Star, is there anything, anything at all that I can do to make you feel better?"

A metaphorical lightbulb appeared over Star's head. "Well… there has been something I've been waiting for for a long time, Marco, and it involves _YOU._ "

Marco started sweating. "Umm, me?"

Star finally arose from the couch and said, "Yes, you. I think there's something that we _both_ want right now." Marco was getting very nervous.

"Star, what does this entail?" Marco was genuinely terrified at what she might say next, given the rather sensual tone of her voice.

"Come into my room and you'll find out." Marco nearly ran out the door, but followed Star all the same. _Dear Lord, if what I'm thinking is right, then I'm freaking out for more than one reason, but I didn't want it to happen like this!_

Star locked the door behind them. Star said, "It's something that would cheer me up beyond belief, and something I think you would be _very, very_ good at."

Five minutes later, Marco was breathing a sigh of relief as she was listing out what she wanted me to email the copyright infringement people for . "And make sure you say that 'this is unacceptable and should not be continued in this great community.' Yeah, that will show them that this is an issue that really needs a discussion."

Marco asked her, "Is this all you wanted?"

Star replied, "That's all I wanted in the _email…_ but there's something else I did want to do while you're in here."

Before Marco could even speak up, Star planted a kiss on his cheek, followed immediately by the pooling of blood to his face. "Umm, Star, was that like a mistake or something?"

Star replied, "My only mistake was not doing that sooner." She smiled with that innocent smile that made me go crazy every day.

Marco thought to himself, _I thought this was quite a successful day, if you asked me. Taking down plagiarism one email at a time, while also scoring a few bonus points with the most beautiful girl on earth._

 **A/N: So obviously this whole piece of writing was a bit of a joke, more so a way for me to get my message out there without getting asked to remove it for not having any Starco action. But it highlights, albeit in a quite silly and fun manner, a deeper issue at play that has suddenly become very important to me.**

 **Plagiarism. Personally, I'm a bit flattered that someone out there thought that my writing was good enough to want to steal, but then again, it's my intellectual property, not his. (His being Logansey5, and if if you haven't seen it already, it's pretty much the same fucking thing as my first chapter to** _ **Shades of Truth.**_ **)**

 **So if someone out there actually really enjoys where a certain story of mine goes, and wants to maybe continue it whereas I shelved it in sort of a spin-off fic, then by all means, do it, but communicate with me and make sure to credit the story as mine, and that it is for the enrichment of a plot, not a direct copy that adds no value to it whatsoever.**

 **This is also a big deal on sites like YouTube, where YouTubers like Jacksfilms and GradeAUnderA have addressed free-booting in their own unique way (two of my fav channels on YT right now, seriously, they are hilarious and should totally go check them out) from people like Jinx and SoFloAntonio and CJisSoCool essentially copying videos and publishing them as their own or putting them on sites like Facebook, just to make a profit on this. It's not entirely the same, but you get my I'm trying to say is, plagiarism is a big issue on every scale imaginable, wether that be a small fan fiction you put together in your spare time, or a studio-grade piece of creativity, or really just any type of intellectual property.**

 **So this is something of a personal issue now. And it's terrible. I don't particularly like that this happened to me, but this could have happened to ANYONE. I feel like the reason he may have chose me is because I'm not nearly as well known as people like Axis25, EVAunit42, SonicELITE, or the likes of which are pretty well known on this corner of fanfiction. So yeah, this could have happened to anyone, and I feel kind of shitty saying that I might not have felt as passionate about this if it didn't happen to me, but it's a big fucking deal now.**

 **We need to, collectively, keep an eye on shady stuff like this. Thank you to EchoNumbers, Kieran Wespell, Anonymims, nightmareking, The Warty Hogg, and SonicELITE for calling this guy out with me, it means a bunch. And a big thank you to Jeremy Hillary Boob for PM'ing me on how I can officially report this guy. It needs to be cracked down on, and as a community, we can stop this from happening to anyone, big or small.**

 **Thank you guys for bothering to read this, and have a good one. Thank you for the support. Until next time!**


	2. Going forward pt 1

**This will be the second of a third chapter I will write on this post, but the third one will be very big and complicated while asking a lot of you guys, so give me some time to work it out.**

 **This whole thing is an author's note. Just sayin'. TL;DR is at the bottom.**

 **Well Jesus. That escalated quickly.**

 **Really kicked up quite a storm, didn't I?**

 **Ok, so hear me out, fellow authors. This guys, Logansey5, has PM'd me asking for forgiveness. At first, I thought, hell no. Right? And to a certain extent, I still feel that way. No way in a million years is this acceptable to anyone. It is straight up theft of property. And frankly, I don't see how anyone at any point can see that this is ok.**

 **BUT. He explained himself. I will admit, he didn't do it in possibly the best manner, or the cleanest, but after sort of talking to him, it seems like it was misguided intentions. He didn't know what the hell he was doing (in a few ways), and he screwed up. Pretty badly. The purist inside me started to really want to hear him out.**

 **** **Now granted, I made this a WAY bigger deal than it possibly needed to be, but this is an issue that runs rampant in many communities. But what we forget sometimes (incoming existential feels) is that these people, though doing really dickish things, are people. And when the creative well runs dry, or never got any water to begin with (admit it, writer's block is partial to no one), at the end of the day, we want work that is good and can be appreciated. And though this might be me being soft because this is this guy's first offense, and since I personally believe that any man can make amends after 1 fuck-up, I think this guy, like anyone else, can be a good writer.**

 **To all of you guys that stood up for me on his work and 'amen'-ing my response work, SonicELITE, Anonymims, chrissdomm, aliyaperez101, nightmareking, EchoNumbers, Kieran Wespell, The Warty Hogg, DaRk-Ar741 and others, thank you. And tell me if I'm being too lenient on this guy. But I have a soft spot for up-and-coming writers, since I pretty much was one about a month ago. We need to make sure that this doesn't happen again, but for those who just want to write, don't know how, and are just misguided as hell, rather than those who want to basically get a piece of the action, we need to help them out. Give em a bit of rehab, teach them how to go out into the world and be creative, and grow as a learner and a writer.**

 **Now by no means have I let this guy off the hook. This is what needs to happen with him, and really anyone else who plagiarizes, for them not realizing how bad this hurts creators. He needs to 1) Take an interest in really being better. If someone just copies work, puts it up, hurts creators for a few days while he's in the process of being reported, and does it for the hell of it, they get nothing. But for those that reach out to us and want to prove they can be better (and believe me, they can be), we have a moral obligation to help these people realize that what they are doing is wrong on so many levels. This will spread awareness of the problem and fix it at the same time. They also need to 2) Put out something that is original to prove they want to get on the straight and narrow. Ok, creativity isn't straight and narrow, but you get my point. We help them, but we make sure they aren't doing this scummy stuff anymore, rather, putting out some quality rather than cancerous garbage that hurts the rest of the community and takes time away from making our own content to deal with those who don't.**

 **And lastly, they need to really make up for their actions. To rally with us when they see it happening, and making a shitstorm as well as us. Because I think that once future plagiarizers see what can happen, what does happen, and what will become of them if they can't get back on course from this very toxic deviation, they can stop, and once again, spread awareness. Because at one point, they were part of the problem, and they can get off of it too.**

 **As a writer, this guy is totally not off the hook. He's got a lot to do before he makes up for this, and it needs to be that way with everyone, and I hope that this has spread enough awareness to the situation that more of us react more swiftly to this kind of behavior and are able to fix the problem. But as a human, I can forgive him. For now. So IF (and this is a bigger if than my font size will allow) he gets out there with truly original content (I have PM'd him on how to get real inspiration without copying, so let's see where this goes), and he tries to make amends for what he has done, please don't be toxic with him. Don't make him not want to write, because we all love writing for what it is: being able to put our creativity out there for the world to see and admire, and** _ **hopefully**_ **not touch. So helping these guys get that same experience is in my opinion our moral duty.**

 **I think that we've done something good here. We've made a noise on an important issue, but now, I think it's time that we take the high road and help them out. If I'm doing the wrong thing here, I'm sorry. But from one writer to another, I think that the creative in all of us really wants to see people like him mend his ways and put out something that is additive and transformative, like what we try and do. This first chapter was a rallying cry for not just my story, but for stories in general. This one is what to do in the aftermath of our outcry.**

 **This is the human thing to do. Not vengeful or spiteful as I initially wanted. But human.**

 **I hope that this has a bigger effect than I realistically think it will. Because this can be fixed in a better way than just making a whole bunch of noise at those who did us wrong. And I'm going to just avoid bringing my own faith into this. This is solely human.**

 **This comes from now seeing both sides of the situation. I know personally that this was probably something that should have never happened, and needs to be avoided at all costs. But we need to, as we stop these guys in their tracks, and let them know that what they did won't be tolerated, let them know that there is another way. And for people like Logansey5, (Come on, you didn't even change the A/N? Pretty much a dead giveaway.) we need to educate them. Bring them in. But let them and everyone else know this:**

 **PLAGIARISM.**

 **WILL.**

 **NOT.**

 **BE.**

 **TOLERATED.**

 **This needs to be stopped, but in a productive and not toxic way that helps everyone.**

 **We made our noise. And I'm proud of this community as a whole for doing so. This has been sort of a faith-restored-in-humanity type experience for me. We need to take the next step in making the community truly something great.**

 **Authors, don't think less of me for trying to bring in those who may have done us a disservice.**

 **Plagiarizers, if you're really just struggling to find an idea of your own, let us know. For me at least, I am happy to help. But don't go about it in this wrong way.**

 **Thank you all. Until next time!**

 **TL;DR- High road in the process of being taken, glad we could make a noise. Don't be so mean, to me or this guy- let's take a better, more civilized path to making our community great. But never let our voices go unheard. Ever. Bring the dissenters in. Peace.**


End file.
